Posts Tagged ‘ban guns’

Toronto’s Mayor, David Miller, seems to be obsessed with handguns. He’s against them of course. Last week he stepped up his campaign to ban all handguns in Canada by going to the clerics for support.

Mayor David Miller reached out to the city’s faith leaders yesterday, urging them to join in his call for a national handgun ban.

“I’m asking you to help us, to reach out to the members of your mosque, or your synagogue, or your temple or your church and ask them to get involved,” Miller told more than 200 religious leaders at the Toronto Area Interfaith Council’s breakfast.

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Rev. Alvin Nicholson of the African Canadian Christian Network, said banning handguns is just one part of the solution.

“If you remove the gun, they’ll take up knives, they’ll take up hammers, they’ll take up batons, they’ll take up anything,” Nicholson said.

“If we’re trying to get rid of a tree, we don’t take the leaves off.”

The good Reverend says that if you ban handguns it won’t stop the violence but it “is just one part of the solution.” Ok- if a ban won’t stop the violence, just what part of the solution is it? Possibly not any part of the solution?

But it also turns out that the obsessive Mayor doesn’t just hate handguns. It would seem that he hasn’t found a firearm of any type that he wouldn’t like to see banned.

Q. Are you specifically speaking of handguns?A. I understand that in certain Northern communities, especially Native communities that certain people hunt for a living. I understand that. That is tradition and that rifles are part of the life there. But there’s certainly no need for guns in urban areas of any kind.

So the gun-ban horse that Mayor Miller is riding is not just for handguns. It is all firearms. Unless you live in a “northern” community and more likely only if you are “Native”.

And look at some of his other comments:

“Part of it (guns used in crime) is that they’re being stolen from gun shops or from legitimate collectors, or I should say “legal,” in quotes, from around Toronto. The question for me is: does anyone need any gun in this city, legal or not? And outside of the police the answer is no? So I think there’s a role for us to act in Canada and say, “we don’t need handguns. Period” It doesn’t matter if you’re a collector or not”.

“One of the reasons there was so many shootings in Malvern a couple of years ago was because one so called collector’s guns were stolen”.

Definitions:Legitimate: – accordant with law or with established legal forms and requirements.
– conforming to recognized principles or accepted rules and standards.Legal – Meeting the requirements under law.

Doesn’t that mean the same thing? But it is obvious what he intends. Although Canadian gun owners may be ‘legal’ – ie: Licenced and their firearms registered – the Mayor doesn’t believe anyone has a ‘legitimate’ reason to own them. Obviously not for sport, not for hunting and Dear God certainly not for self-defence!

(An ugly thought. Is there any danger that this (empty holstered) cowboy has aspirations to run for provincial or federal politics?)

But wait! It doesn’t end there. The Mayor in a lovely bit of nastiness has now attacked the (legal? legitimate?) gun clubs along with firearm related businesses in Toronto.

Mayor David Miller wants to close recreational shooting ranges in Toronto, along with giving the city power to block gun manufacturers and wholesalers from opening new plants or warehouses.

“Nobody can deny that hobby directly results in people being shot and killed on the streets of our city,” Miller said of sport shooting yesterday, amid debate on a possible gun bylaw.

Canadian Olympic pistol shooter and downtown resident Avianna Chao begs to differ. She says that if Miller gets his way, it could mean an end to her sport – and it won’t make the streets one bit safer.

Miller wants to terminate leases with two gun clubs that have shooting ranges on city property, one at Union Station, the other at Don Montgomery community centre.

Chao, who will head to Beijing this summer to compete for Canada at the Olympics, began shooting at Don Montgomery and now trains primarily at the Union range.

“When I heard about this city proposal today it just absolutely knocked the wind out of me,” Chao said yesterday.

You have to admit, the guy is really a bit over the top. If he thinks that sport shooting directly results in people being shot and killed in the streets of Toronto, he must really be concerned about the mayhem being caused by all of those high power rifles and shotguns owned by hunters. I’m surprised that Miller hasn’t called in the army to bring order back to the streets of Toronto.

There are currently over 1.1 million legally owned handguns in Canada (588,000 new registry, 519,000 old registry). Of these, 230,000 are registered in Ontario to 550,000 licensed firearms owners. The average value of these handguns (including accessories) is approximately $1,000 each.